This is a continued article based on following;
For the last centennial warp time there is hardly any new breakthrough in technology for car industry. Initiated by internal combustion inventions during the end of 19th century,....read more;
["#1 ; Automotive Technology Milestone" ]
There are two main component which give rise to the hydropneumatic suspension:........read more;
["#2 Citroen's Hydropneumatic Suspension"]
A modern compact engine would not have achieved a high performance title without the help of multivalve technology. A multivalve engine was invented as early as the history of mass production car itself. The history saw the first multivalve engine application on T model Ford on experimental basis, then in 1922 on Buggati for a very limited production. Extensive use was initiated by motor racing industry in late 60s on Ford Escort BDA twin cam 16 valves developed by Cosworth. The 1601 cc BDA produced 120 Bhp, then 1700 cc BDB 200 bhp on Escort RS1600 rally engine.
Escort BDA is still one of popular private entry car on many club racing particularly on the commonwealth soils such Australia and New Zealand, as one of rare sought after car it may fetch a commendable price these days.
Mulitivalve engined cars begin to be mass produced in mid 80s, where we learnt that a four cylinder engine was equipped with 16 valves. Albeit four valves instead of two for each cylinder. Two for inlet and another two for exhaust sides, this extended the power band to elevated higher rpm. Thus there was a number of marketing gimmick such as "High engine performance 16 Valves Twin Cam"
Today we are taken for granted that every model comes with such technology. As the pressure amounted on the car manufacturing to reduce pollution, the industry faced a dilemma solution. How to maintained a clean engine without sacrificing its performance. Some did produce clean cars by simply fitting the catalytic converter but at cost of 10% horsepower reduction.
CVCC is a Honda's patented device used to reduce automotive emissions called Compound Vortex Controlled Combustion. This technology allowed Honda's cars to meet United States emission standards in the 1970s without a catalytic converter, and first appeared on the 1975 ED1 engine. It is a form of stratified charge engine.
This is Honda's invention that bring the company to further penetrate and lead a niche of car industry from its motorcycle origin, it is one kind of successful company to exist on both industries. US market is the first globally to introduce emission restriction, and both Civic as well as Accord enhance CVCC popularity there.
Following the front wheel drive trends setter, it was perhaps the French's Citroen and Renault that successfully introduce a more compact and hence efficient drive train package in a fwd cars. Honda is another manufacturing company adopted fwd lay out into their Civic and Accord which subsequently trigger others to follow.
The first generation of Accord raise the standard of NVH engineering, driver's satisfaction, and reliability at an affordable package that normally only available on more premium luxury cars. In fact most premium cars have more frequent visit to the garage than Accord. Some will require driving to a specific rare car garage standing next to its equally exotic dealership. Which necessitate long journey to fix a problem or even for a mere regular service. Accord also score on fuel efficiency with equally good performance without compromise, to the delight of driving pleasure.
I think for my version of automotive technology milestone, Honda deserves third place after Citroen's hydropneumatic suspension and T model Ford on its assembling line inventions. The kind of invention that is truly unique and successfully implemented for others to follow.
Car manufacturing deploys different strategy to alleviate emission restriction, most Japanese producers opt for using multivalve engines and subsequently fitted with electronic fuel injection (efi). Others simply opt to fit only efi with at that time an open loop ECU management to their non multivalve engines. A few (Volvo, Saab and Audi) has added turbo charger to substitute for the power loss, while BMW and Mercedes Benz adamantly reject this. Certainly we know that turbo charge of the era has huge time lagging to kick in. This is the 1980s era, soon everyone has multivalve equipped with EFI and closed loop engine management.
With an exception of 1986–1987 Mercedes Benz W201 190E 2.3-16, a rare limited production Benz equipped with Cosworth (or may be Yamaha on Cylinder Head works) multivalve engine. A marvelous expensive compact car! The 190E 2.3 litre 16 Valves was priced as costly as a BMW M535i of the same year production. Its advantages over Bimmer apart of the price tag was "limited space", bright headlight, engine booming (4 cylinders compare to smooth 6) and fuel efficiency (both produce power on the same par, but BMW put out more torque!).
to be continued...!
How's an idea for your beloved one on this coming Valentine's Day?
She'll definitely forgive you for spending both on
your much of time and money to tinker the car!
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